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The Broccoli Whatever Soup

My husband is in Super Good Mood because of this soup so he made nice photo for me!

My lovely friend is doing this Veganuary thingy which means that she’s going to be a vegan for the whole of January. She said on facebook that she had no idea what she would be cooking tomorrow so I thought I would give her one with this post.

I said in the Overcooked Beans post that I wasn’t a great cook and I would say it again – I am not a great cook. The best I can promise is that everything is edible. Now, this might not sound much but actually is huge for me – few years ago when I started having to cook, my biggest fear was that I would waste food which is like a really big sin according to my mum. So far, I only produced about 5 dishes that were inedible (way too salty; fish not cleaned properly and had awful smell x 3; completely burnt) and that was in my early cooking days. Since then I also managed to release this unfounded fear programming with a Kinesiology balance. I used to be so stressed out even by the thought of having to cook. No more!

Why broccoli? Because broccolis are so pretty and I can never resist buying some when I see them at the market. Sometimes I just boil them, stir fry with garlic, or make a simple broccoli soup which involves only broccoli and onion.

Why the Whatever? Because I wanted to use up some other vegetables instead of wasting them which is a really big sin. I also wanted to make the soup more filling or else my husband might want some bread and I didn’t want either of us to go out to the cold.

Whatever is also my cooking motto nowadays. My husband used to describe me as ‘close my eyes and wish for good luck’ when it came to cooking as I was never sure what I was doing. I’m still not sure sometimes but I learnt to be whatever about it and see what happens. It is more fun this way and sometimes the result is way better than just edible.

The recipe below records what I used for this soup tonight. Please be Whatever about it, vary the ingredients whatever ways you want. And as my other lovely friend said to me years ago, you can never go wrong with making soup because you can keep tasting it as you cook until it is the way you like it. And hopefully you can use up some leftover food too and not to commit the big sin. Relax and have fun!

The Broccoli Whatever Soup ingredients:
Onions – 1 big and 1 small. I prefer the red kind.
Broccoli – 1 medium or big one. Just make sure you have more broccoli than other vegetables or else you can’t call it Broccoli Soup!
Butternut Squash – about 1.5 cups (that was how much I had leftover)
Potato – 1 (just because I had it)
Noodles – 1 portion as instructed by the packet information. I used some very thin Japanese noodles that come in dry stick form. Any kind you have is okay I think. There are some gluten free type noodles too. You may also use leftover rice, about a cup. If you don’t have these things I guess you could put in a bit more potatoes or buy some bread.
Red Capsicum – 1
Brown sugar – about 2 tsp
Vinegar – 1 tsp or a bit more
Very Nice Sea Salt
Black Pepper

Let’s begin!
Chop the onions and the capsicum into little squares. Roughly chop the broccoli. Peel the butternut squash and potato and blend them till very small so they cook fast.

Heat some olive oil in a big pot on medium heat. Stir fry the chopped big onion with a pitch of salt for a few minutes and then add the broccoli, butternut squash, potato and some black pepper. Add enough cold water to almost cover all the vegetables. You can always add more water later to thin out the soup if you want. Mix everything together, cover the pot and cook in high heat till it boils.

Switch off the heat and puree the soup with immersion blender or whatever tool you have. Take care and not to burn yourself. Put the pot back on high heat, add some salt till it is to your taste. Check also that the thickness of the soup is what you prefer. You could add some hot water if it is too thick or leave the soup simmer for a while if it is too thin. Please remember though that the noodles are going to absorb some of the water. Then add the noodles. I broke the noodles into shorter sticks just before I put them in the pot. Stir and cook till the noodles are cooked.

While the soup is cooking you can start preparing the toppings. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan. Add the chopped small onion and capsicum and sprinkle the sugar on top as well as a pinch of salt. Stir fry the vegetables till they are cooked. Add vinegar and continue stirring till the strong vinegar smell goes away.

Serve soup with the onion capsicum toppings. Kali orexi!

*Καλή όρεξη/kali orexi (pronounced as KaLEE OReeksi) means ‘good appetite in Greek. That’s what people here say to each other at the beginning of the meal.

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All images on this site from Ikonic Image unless otherwise stated and can be purchased from ikonicimage.com
Special thanks to Konstantinos Anastasakis for permitting the usage of his beautiful imagery.

Stephanie is a fully qualified practitioner in Sekhem Healing (L1, 2 3 & Master Level 1), Touch for Health Kinesiology (L 1-5). She is also a dedicated level 2 Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique practitioner.
She is currently based in Crete, Greece and she offers distant healing too.

"Much love and thanks to all the people in my life past, present and future"